1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to face detection and recognition, particularly under uneven illumination conditions
2. Description of the Related Art
Viola-Jones proposes a classifier chain consisting of a series of sequential feature detectors. The classifier chain rejects image patterns that do not represent faces and accepts image patterns that do represent faces.
A problem in face recognition processes arises when faces that are unevenly illuminated are distributed in a large area of face space making correct classification difficult. Faces with similar illumination tend to be clustered together and correct clustering of images of the same person is difficult. It is desired to be able to detect faces with uneven illumination within images, or where another difficult characteristic of a face exists such as a face having a non-frontal pose. It is also desired to have a method to normalize illumination on faces, for example, for use in face recognition and/or other face-based applications.